NEW HINSDALE VILLAGE MANAGER READY TO CHANGE HIS PRIORITIES

Robert DavisCHICAGO TRIBUNE

Ron Ruskey is going from a job overseeing one of the fastest growing villages in the Chicago metropolitan area to one that involves keeping things just the way they are.

Ruskey, 34, who has served as the village manager of south suburban Orland Park for the last two years, will take over in May as village manager of Hinsdale, a community that prides itself on its quality of life and its placid village atmosphere.

Ruskey says that the job change will involve more than just moving.

''The emphasis in Orland Park is on growth and development, annexation in the surrounding areas,'' he said. In Hinsdale, ''preservation of the residential nature of Hinsdale and refinement of existing services is our goal.''

Ruskey was hired late last month by the Hinsdale Village Board, which had interviewed more than 100 candidates since village manager Charles Dobbins resigned in December.

According to Hinsdale Village President Rick Miller, he and other village board members conducted the most extensive search in Hinsdale history, one that probably rivaled executive hunts conducted by the biggest cities in the country.

Because Dobbins said he would be leaving at the end of February, Miller said the board had only about 2 1/2 months, much of that time during the holiday season, to find a replacement. The board members decided to shun the services of an executive search firm and find a new village manager by themselves.

One reason there were so many candidates was that the village board`s ads in several newspapers and periodicals noted that the salary for the village manager would be $57,500, just $2,500 less than that paid to the mayor of Chicago.

Ruskey was interviewed as many as a dozen times for as long as three hours at a time. The board also made an intensive background check of the finalists in the search.

''We`re not going to get any Clarence McClains in Hinsdale,'' said Miller, referring to the controversial former aide of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, who left his post after media exposures of his criminal record.

Orland Park, a village of about 30,000 residents, is the third fastest growing community in the Chicago metropolitan area. ''Orland Park is a boom town,'' Ruskey said. ''In March alone, we issued building permits for more than $11 million in construction.''

Hinsdale, on the other hand, has about 16,700 residents and is seeking only to preserve the reputation it has acquired over the years and to improve what Ruskey calls ''leisure services'' appreciated by residents who enjoy a primarily residential community.

''Hinsdale is fairly well known for its quality of life. It`s landlocked, so there isn`t going to be too much growth,'' he said.

Ruskey`s understanding of the village board`s goals was one of the main reasons for his hiring, Miller said.

''This is a family-oriented residential community that has spurned efforts to commercialize. We have been foregoing the opportunity to develop,'' Miller said.

''But we also realize that by spurning commercialization, we have been eliminating the chance to increase revenues, and Ruskey understands that we have to find new and creative ways to finance village government,'' he said.

Miller said that another attraction Ruskey had as a candidate was his extensive experience in government.

''He had a breadth of experience that was impressive, and it has made him quite a creative guy,'' Miller said.

Ruskey, who, with his wife and three children, will move to Hinsdale before he takes over as village manager, went to Orland Park in March, 1983, after serving as an assistant city manager in Grand Junction, Colo., another 30,000-population community that also was undergoing ''boom-town''

development.

Before that, he had served as an assistant manager in Carbondale from 1974 until 1977. He also worked for a year with the Illinois Capital Development Board.